The schooner Sultana is a reproduction of a Boston-built merchant vessel that the Royal Navy purchased and used from 1768 to 1772 to enforce the unpopular tea taxes. During its four-year tour of duty, more than 100 men from three continents served on its 25-person crew as it patrolled the Chesapeake, Delaware, and Narragansett Bays in search of smuggled goods. Life aboard was difficult and dangerous, as the crew faced both harsh conditions and the anger of rebellious colonists while searching vessels for contraband. Sultana operated in a world where injustice was widespread, especially within an economic system largely built on slave labor, yet the revolution taking shape during its service helped propel the continuing struggle to achieve the nation's founding ideals. Shortly after its launch in Boston, the schooner sailed to Deptford, England, where Royal Navy shipwrights recorded its hull design and interior layout in June 1768, creating a rare documentation of colonial American shipbuilding that helped make the modern reproduction highly accurate. Lieutenant John Inglis, the American-born son of a Philadelphia merchant and slave owner, commanded Sultana during its mid-Atlantic service and led a crew that reflected the multicultural diversity of the 18th-century Royal Navy, with sailors from Europe, North America, Bermuda, and Africa. Although complete demographic records for the crew do not survive, at least one crew member, Prince Gould, was a free African American born in Rhode Island who served for eight months before being discharged in Virginia.